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Editorials

The homeless can be scary people. They may block sidewalks, curse passers-by and aggressively demand money. Or they can be just sad.

Growing homeless encampments are stressing cities across the country. Honolulu and Sarasota responded with stiff laws taking “vagrants” off the streets and out of public parks. South Carolina’s capital, Columbia, decided to give the homeless three choices. They can go to a shelter, get arrested or leave town.

Baking hot weather this month has brought flocks of river enthusiasts to the water once again. Last week, they could be seen floating down the Clark Fork River on inner tubes, splashing along its banks and jumping from the Madison Street pedestrian bridge.

This despite the fact that the river is running high and fast - and jumping from bridges is illegal in Missoula County.

In our throw-away culture, recycling should be the goal of every community.

But the reality is, there has to be a market for — or at least a robust way to re-use — recycled materials. Just because it’s good to recycle cardboard, newspapers, aluminum cans, magazines, plastics and glass doesn’t mean they magically transform themselves into useful products.

Some criminals are sent to jail for selling drugs, theft or myriad other intentional acts of lawbreaking. Many of them are driven to commit these crimes in no small part by addiction or mental illness, and often both. Many are good candidates for treatment programs and support services designed to keep them from re-offending.

And then there are the criminals whose violent acts cause the kind of harm that can never be healed. They are murderers, rapists and child predators. They present a clear danger to the community, and they belong behind bars.

If you had an incurable disease and your doctor told you there was a medication that had a 90 percent chance of saving your life, would you take it?

Of course you would. You would take it even if it gave you less than a 1 percent chance.

So why wouldn’t you take bear spray — take it with you, that is — into the wild when studies show it is 90 percent effective in protecting you from something that can absolutely kill you, namely bears?

Hunting is not only a fundamental part of Montana’s culture, but also a way to help prevent some of the problems associated with the overpopulation of certain species in certain areas. And nostalgia for the iconic grizzly bears around Yellowstone National Park is not a good enough reason to prevent people from hunting the animals if and when it makes sense from a wildlife management standpoint to do so.

If a jury concludes that Cinemark should have foreseen the sort of mass shooting that occurred at its Century 16 Theater in Aurora in 2012, it will send an alarming message to businesses around the country — and especially those that host paid events.

They’ll know they are likely to be held responsible even for tragedies that have no precedent in their sphere of commerce — that are nearly the equivalent of a lightning strike.

Last week the Oregon Department of Education released 15 pages of guidelines regarding transgender students.

Among the recommendations: Oregon students should be able to use the names, pronouns and bathrooms they want. In addition, transgender females should be allowed to play girls sports and transgender boys allowed to wear tuxedos to prom. In general, students should be able to present themselves as the gender of their choosing.